Death (Item Power)
| rank = | item = Sword Mace Axe Bow Staff Wand | effect = * Target unit must Resist at or suffer exactly worth of Death Damage. * Weapon-triggered Touch Attack. | general = true | availability = Create Artifact Treasure Merchant The Gift }} "Death" is an Item Power imbued through . At a moderate casting cost, it may be added to Weapons created for Heroes via Create Artifact, and offers a chance to slay a figure in a unit with each attack. Some of the 250 premade Items possess this power, and these can be found mainly as Treasure during the campaign. Effect To enchant a weapon with this effect, the Wizard draws up a reservoir of energy from his mana to fire his forge. The finished product bears a curse that can slay living creatures outright. Example :To illustrate, say B'Shan aims a "Bow of Death" at a unit of Gargoyles from the opposite end of a battlefield. At this distance, his has about a 3% chance of doing more than against the Gargoyles' . Meanwhile the "Death" power attached to the bow has a 60% chance of beating this opponent's resistance, given by d10 versus , and dealing exactly in this attack. It involves no component or range penalties, checks rather than defense, and its magnitude is always the max of . Strategy There are a number of Item Powers that inflict a resist or suffer effect on the Hero's target. Among these, Death, save at -3 or die is both cheap to cast and difficult to resist. It can pose a threat where other mechanics will fail, as in the example above. Still, in the scheme of things these powers all have serious shortcomings, rooted in their being Touch Attacks: ;: * Victims of a Touch Attack make one resistance roll per attacking figure, and Heroes are . * Touch Attacks are designed to scale up with , so individually their effects are paltry. * Dangerous enemies frequently either have , or something close, remaining after Death's resist penalty, or could be immune to death. ;: In essence, "Death" only gets one chance to succeed per attack, only kills one if it does so, and might not be of much use at all against particularly tough creatures. Unlike a straight defense or damage boost, this power requires some reflection about what sort of opponents you expect your Heroes to be facing. Other Item Powers that inflict a resist or suffer effect on the Hero's target: Acquisition Create Artifact With , "Death" may be added to a Weapon of your own design through Create Artifact. Making strong Items through this spell is an incredibly expensive and time-consuming process, though more reasonable with the Artificer and Runemaster Retorts. Overland :Main article: Magical Items in Treasure The game data files contain 250 pre-defined Items. Of these, eight possess the "Death" power. This power causes a premade Item to demand that the Wizard have particular Spellbooks in order to appear in Treasure, and the requirements are irregular. Note how in the case of this power, none of the pre-defined items require a in order to find. There are three different ways by which you can acquire one of these pre-defined Items: * By winning a difficult Encounter. * By purchasing it from a Merchant, a random petitioner. * As result of a Random Event called "The Gift". It is often better to acquire items in this way, as it means you do not need to spend any time or to create them. Still, Items found through these means are in no way guaranteed to exactly suit your needs. The table below lists the pre-defined Items with this power. ;: Category:Item Powers